
Glass. 
Book. 



i"n 



:~> > u 



THE DEATH 



OF 



IU)£ai)am Lincoln. 



COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE 



<Dn tftc Scat!) 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



BY SETS SWEETSER, 



PASTOR OF THE CKNT1IAL CHUI:CII. 




(JBorccstcr, fHassadjusctts. 



MDCCCLXV. 




E45-] 



Abraham Lincoln, 

Sixteenth President of the United States, 

Died on the 15th of April, A.D. 1805, 
Aged 5(3. 



£ Ir.it magnattimitg tlr.it neither fr.irrtli greatness of altcv.uioii, nor the bicfos of 
conspirators, nor the potucr of rncmn, is more than hcroical." 



WORCESTER, MAY 8, 1805. 

Dear Sir, 

The Congregation of the Central Church in this city 
greatly desire to preserve and perpetuate your Discourse in commemoration 
of the Death of our revered President, Abraham Lincoln. They have, 
therefore, this clay commissioned us, the undersigned, to request of you a 
copy for the press. In preferring this request, as we now do, we desire to 
express, for ourselves and for the congregation, our conviction that the 
Discourse is eminently entitled to a place among the permanent memorials of 
our great national bereavement. Trusting that you will grant this request, 

We remain, with great respect, 

Your friends, 

CHAS. E. STEVENS. 
THOMAS H. GAGE. 
P. EMORY ALDRICH. 
C. M. MILES. 
G. HENRY WHITCOMB. 
The Rev. Setii Sweetsee, D.D. 



WORCESTER, May 10, 1S65. 

Gentlemen, 

In compliance with your request, I send you the manu- 
script of my Discourse preached on Sunday, the 28d of April last. 

With acknowledgments of your continued regard, 

Your friend and Pastor, 

S. SWEETSER. 

Messrs. Charles E. Stevens, Thomas n. Gage, P. Emory Aldrich, 
C. M. Miles, G. Henry Whitcomb. 



AND THE KING SAID UNTO DTIS SERVANTS, KNOW YE NOT THAT 
THERE IS A PRINCE AND A GREAT MAN FALLEN THIS DAY IN 

ISRAEL ? 

2 SAMUEL, III. 38. 



DISCOURSE. 



TO keep in memory, and to review with gratitude 
and honor, the lives of men conspicuous for 
great services, has the sanction of the universal judg- 
ment of mankind. In so doing, the goodness which 
would be ephemeral is embalmed ; the examples 
worthy of perpetual imitation are kept as ever-burn- 
ing lights in the darkness of the world. It is thus 
History adorns her temple with noble statues, and 
fills her archives with the choicest wisdom of the 
ages. It is thus that prophets and kings, benefactors 
and holy men, being dead, speak on from generation 
to generation, and the righteous are in everlasting 
remembrance. 

A prince and a great man has fallen, and a grateful 
people will establish his memorial: they will enrol 
his name with the illustrious benefactors of the world, 
and treasure his deeds amongst the worthiest tradi- 
tions that are handed down to after-times. The 



(i 



thrill of horror which shot through the nation on 
the morning of the fifteenth of April, though some- 
what abated in its force, still vibrates in the hearts 
of afflicted millions, and has left an impression which 
a lifetime will not obliterate. In the stroke which 
deprived the country of its Chief Magistrate, malice 
has done its utmost. The malignant spirit of treason 
and conspiracy culminated in a crime hitherto un- 
known in our annals. The records of despotic gov- 
ernments have often been stained with like atrocities ; 
for despotism is itself a violence and a felony against 
human nature ; and the atmosphere of tyranny breeds 
the malicious passions which revel in murders. This 
awful instance of insane depravity is but another 
crime, born of the same mother whose hideous 
offspring have filled the land. Treason, rebellion, 
and war, the unnamed and unnumbered inhumanities 
which have transcended all the supposed horrors of 
war, are not the growth of free institutions, but 
of that disregard of human rights which claimed 
slavery as essential to the highest social condition. 
The same spirit, which, for its own ends, assailed the 
life of the Ilepublic, has now struck by the hand of 
the assassin the chief and the leader of the nation. 
The magnitude of the crime excites us with feelings 
of the utmost horror: the bereavement afflicts us 
with the deepest grief. A nation mourns as nations 
have seldom had occasion to mourn : a whole people 



weeps as they only weep who have loved. How deep 
and strong the love, no one knew until it was told in 
the wailing and lamentation which sounded through 
the land, from one end of it to the other. And yet, 
as the violence of sorrow subsides, we find the sharp- 
ness of the affliction modified by rare satisfactions. 
God has added an exalted name to the roll of the 
honored dead in our country's history, and enlarged 
our annals with a new chapter crowded with great 
events, and deeds of lasting renown. The man who 
has fixed our attention and inspired all our hopes 
more than any other, and into whose hands the 
destiny of the future seemed to be given, has in a 
moment passed away. Who will say that his life- 
work was left incomplete ] Who will say that he 
had not done for himself, for his country, and for 
mankind, all that was given him to do \ He had 
reached a height of power, a security of public con- 
fidence, a depth and universality of affection, seldom 
gained by rulers. He had seen the dawn of an era 
towards which, with a single eye and an intense gaze, 
he had been looking, — for which, with almost super- 
human persistency and courage, he had been strug- 
gling. He ascended the mount where he could see 
the fair fields and the smiling vineyards of the prom- 
ised land. But, like the great leader of Israel, he 
was not permitted to come to the possession. His 
vigor was not diminished. His natural strength was 



8 



not abated. His sun never declined. His day knew 
no evening. He departed at the noontide hour, in 
the zenith and full blaze of his glory. The beautiful 
language in which the Senate of the United States 
communicated to John Adams the death of Wash- 
ington, may with propriety be applied here : " The 
scene is closed, and we are no longer anxious lest 
misfortune should sully his glory : he has travelled to 
the end of his journey, and carried with him an 
increasing weight of honor : he has deposited it safely 
where misfortune cannot tarnish it, where malice can- 
not blast it." 

An accomplished life is a great thing. There is, 
indeed, a charm in a life rounded out with its full 
term of years, and closing with the serene light of 
a quiet evening. But life is estimated by its pur- 
poses and their fulfilment. And when a man's day 
has been crowded with great events, and God has 
given him the post and the honor of directing the 
currents of destiny to beneficent ends, and that has 
been done, what higher idea can we have' of life ? 
It is true, our hopes are disappointed. We walk 
and are sad, as were the unenlightened disciples on 
their way to Emmaus. We trusted that it had been 
he which should have redeemed Israel. May not the 
revelations of the future satisfy us as the disciples 
were satisfied? May we not find yet, that all our 
loftiest and most cherished expectations arc realized I 



It is not unnatural for us to be filled with dread, 
when the swift revolution of the great wheel sud- 
denly takes out of our sight the objects on which our 
eyes have dwelt with fondest desire. We never see 
much at a time. The chain which binds in fixed 
succession all events, exhibits to us but a few links. 
We see neither the beginning nor the end. The 
chain is not broken because we lose sight of the con- 
nection. The great procession goes on under the eye 
of the Lord of the whole earth. All down the cen- 
turies of time, and on through coming generations, 
not a break occurs. Steadily onward, not by a blind 
necessity, but under the control of an omnipotent 
will, goes forward the march of events with unerring 
certainty, till all is finished. And, as at the begin- 
ning, so in the end, the Creator will look upon his 
work ; and, behold, it is very good. And, when the 
problem which now perplexes us shall have been 
worked out in all its parts, the whole troubled scene 
will present to the comprehension of the human 
mind an orderly and beneficent arrangement, fully 
justifying the ways of God. 

The elevation of Mr. Lincoln to the chief magis- 
tracy was a pregnant event. It opened a new era. It 
was the first distinct and effective utterance of the reviv- 
ing life of the nation. Whatever were the judgments 
of the hour, — and they were various, — whatever 
its hope or its fears, the result has demonstrated that 



10 



it was the hinge on which the destiny of the country 
was turning. The malice with which the change was 
met has been one and the same in quality and tone 
until now. The menace of the beginning has shaped 
and charged all the violence and outrage which have 
filled the intervening period with the darkest atroci- 
ties, and which have at length reached the limit of 
our conception of crime against the State. Such a 
series of years, like all revolutionary epochs, cannot 
but be crowded with momentous events. The chief 
actors are invested with extraordinary responsibilities, 
with the high privilege of controlling the mighty 
issues at stake, and determining the welfare to be 
secured in the struggle. 

Such were the circumstances and such the position 
in which the President was called to discharge the 
duties of his office. That he had a singular fitness 
for it is now the universal judgment, notwithstanding 
many suspected or perceived deficiencies. Indiscrimi- 
nate eulogy and indiscriminate censure are alike dis- 
tasteful and unjust ; but we should be ungrateful to 
God not to acknowledge his goodness in appointing 
and qualifying such a man for the burdens and perils 
of this service. His honesty of purpose amid abound- 
ing dishonesty was a lustrous virtue. His self-for- 
getf ulncss, at a period when selfish ambition had 
shamed patriotism into obscurity, was a rare jewel. 
His childlike simplicity, which exposed him to many 



11 



a jeer, was a fresh illumination in the surrounding 
darkness of intrigue and policy. His very ignorance 
of state-craft and artifice was as charming as the 
frankness and ingenuousness of youth in the crowd 
of hardened and deceitful men of the world. His 
acknowledgment of God was a gleam of hope in the 
days of unreasoning trust in material prosperity. 
With such qualities of heart he could not be a patriot, 
without being a sincere one ; he could not bend his 
energies to subserve the interests of his country, with- 
out a firm hand and a single eye. Many doubted, 
many feared: some were utterly faithless and hope- 
less. And for such feelings, it may be, there were 
grounds not altogether unreasonable ; for he was a 
new man, girding himself to a new enterprise. He 
had yet to demonstrate his capacity, and to show, in 
the hardest conflict of the most tempestuous times, 
his competency and quality. The faint outlines and 
foreshadowings which in the outset inspired hope 
have been deeply drawn and filled in to the admira- 
tion of his countrymen, and so as to secure, we doubt 
not, the approving judgment of a dispassionate pos- 
terity. 

Napoleon was fond of calling himself the child of 
Destiny. Abraham Lincoln was the child of Provi- 
dence. An undevout philosophy might say that he 
was the pupil of events, sagaciously detecting the 
clew, and then implicitly following the thread. We 



12 



had rather say, that he sat a learner under the teach- 
ings of God, in his providence and his word, and 
waited patiently to learn God's will and the path of 
duty ; and, when that will was known, and the path 
opened, no man was more prompt to do the one or 
enter the other. This, if I mistake not, was one of 
the distinctive features of his character. For he was 
not a man, as I apprehend, of remarkable intuitions, of 
comprehensiveness of view, and penetrating forecast. 
He did not stand amongst statesmen where Lord 
Bacon stood amongst philosophers, detecting great 
principles in their germs, and jotting down the 
synopsis of the world's thought ages beforehand. 
He did not stand in public affairs where Newton stood 
in the realm of nature, seizing, with an almost pro- 
phetic insight, the great laws which determine the 
vast cycles of celestial movements in their absolute 
harmony. In the combined qualities of the states- 
man and general, he can hardly rise to the eminence 
of William the Silent, whom he so much resembled, 
in the life-work he performed as a national deliverer, 
in the nobleness of his character, in the piety of his 
sentiments, in the tenderness of his heart, and, more 
than all, in the cruel death he suffered. He seems 
not to have been gifted with that keenness of sight 
which outruns observation, and with a glance detects 
and follows out the certain connection between pres- 
ent causes and future consequences. His mind was 



13 



of another order, not perhaps of a lower order ; for 
all true greatness is not of one quality. He was 
prone to watch the currents as they were passing ; to 
eye the development as God opened it in his provi- 
dence ; to trust the hand which guided events, and 
wait till it beckoned him onward ; to learn his lesson 
day by day, and to be satisfied, as Cromwell was, to 
do in the day the duty of the day. Such a course 
exposed him to the charge of hesitation and waver- 
ing. He sometimes seemed to be the victim of igno- 
rance and indecision. He was not rapid enough for 
an impatient people. He was not rash enough 
for enthusiastic partisans. But this very hesitation, 
this holding back till the way opened and the duty 
was ascertained, was his insurance against fatal errors. 
It would be presumptuous to say that he committed 
no faults. It would be unjust not to say, that, in 
view of the fearful complexity of affairs, the untried 
scenes of his action, the lack of precedents, and his 
own inexperience of the burdens of government, 
his mistakes were as few and as venial as could 
reasonably be expected from a short-sighted mortal. 
That he was ever betrayed by malice, blinded by 
passion, or instigated to doubtful measures by self- 
seeking or personal ambition, his enemies would 
scarcely be willing to affirm. 

In the letter addressed to Congress by the conven- 
tion which framed the constitution of the United 



14 



States, submitting the constitution to the considera- 
tion of that body, and bearing the signature of Wash- 
ington, are these words : "In all our deliberations . . . 
we kept steadily in our view that which appears to us 
the greatest interest of every true American, — the 
consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our 
prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national exist- 
ence." 

One could hardly select more appropriate language 
in which to describe the avowed aim of the adminis- 
tration which has so suddenly terminated. It is the 
leading idea in the entire series of the President's 
efforts. Whether or not he was too exclusively 
devoted to this purpose, and whether or not he was 
wise in all the measures he adopted in attaining it, it 
was, beyond any question, his great aim. He looked 
upon the Union with an ardor and sincerity of affec- 
tion, with a self-denying patriotism, and with a single- 
hearted devotion, which would not have dishonored 
the chief heroes of the Revolution. To the consoli- 
dation and perpetuity of the Union, and the resulting 
welfare, he made every thing subservient. He did 
not at once see all that was necessary. And this is 
one of the brightest features in his career, that, as 
the elements essential to unity and prosperity were 
evolved from the confused and conflicting mass of 
judgments, opinions, and political dicta, he fearlessly 
accepted them, and firmly applied them. Upon the 



15 



all-important question of emancipation, he seemed at 
first to be unsettled, — not from a deficiency of kind 
and humane feelings, — but from the lack of a clear 
discernment as to right and duty under the constitu- 
tion. But he was a willing learner. He was a sure 
learner. He studied. He observed. He pondered. 
He weighed the great question as a ruler, with the 
solemn responsibilities of the high trust upon him ; as 
a man, with all the moving instincts of a loving and 
tender heart : and as a ruler, sure of his duty, he 
spoke the disinthralling edict, when multitudes still 
doubted : as a man he rejoiced in the glorious prospect 
of a race emancipated from a bondage more cruel 
than the grave, and elevated to the privileges of man- 
hood and the opportunity of respect and honor. This 
progressive enlargement of view was characteristic of 
him. He rose with the tide of events. He was never 
before his day ; perhaps it is just to say he was never 
behind it. He kept well up with the line of time ; and, 
when the emergency came, he was ready. No man, in 
the opening of the conflict, understood it. No mind 
conceived of the magnitude and strength of the occa- 
sion. The rapid developments of the war have kept 
all thoughts upon the stretch. Whoever was ham- 
pered by precedents, and confined to the old measures 
of things, was necessarily left far in the rear of the 
advancing column. Under a pressure" so resistless, 
and exposed, almost of necessity, to be pushed onward, 



16 



it indicates no ordinary firmness and discipline to 
have been able to advance, step by step, under the 
guiding force of internal conviction and intelligent 
determinations. Such I believe to be the measure of 
praise due to Mr. Lincoln. If any man was exposed 
to the utmost rush of the current, he was. If any 
man was liable to be forced out of course by the 
whirls and eddies of the boisterous stream, he was. 
Amid the tumultuous feelings of the hour, and under 
the disparaging influence of nearness to the chief 
events, we may be unable to discern the full credit 
he deserves, in so manfully persisting in duty, and 
so gloriously leading the country through the fierce 
ordeal of civil war. When history shall be written 
calmly and impartially, the strong features will come 
out in bold relief. Then the wisdom, the firmness, 
the humanity, the faith, of our lamented President will 
furnish the portrait of a ruler which will not lose 
lustre in the presence of Aurelius, Alfred, Orange, or 
even of Washington. If the statue of George Wash- 
ington fills, by unanimous consent, the first niche in 
the Pantheon of illustrious worthies, will not that of 
Abraham Lincoln fill the second 1 

It would be enough for the largest desire, and for 
fame, to have administered well the affairs of the 
nation under the ordinary reign of peace and pros- 
perity. But to have achieved success amid dismem- 
bering revolutionary struggles, and the convulsive 



17 



agitations of a ruthless and gigantic rebellion, pressed 
with all the ferocity of unscrupulous war, is the high- 
est renown. The world will admire the measure of 
wisdom which marked his decisions in council, when 
the profoundest minds were held in suspense, or divided 
in judgment. We take an enthusiastic pleasure in 
the heroism which gallantly pursues the path of speedy 
victory, and is always elate with triumph. But there 
is a deeper tone of gratification in witnessing such 
persistent endurance as we have seen in our leader, 
which did not falter under defeat, or grow faint in 
the hour of disaster, or despond when trusted agents 
proved inefficient, and selfish loyalty threatened to 
withdraw its support. With the accumulated obsta- 
cles which beset so vast an enterprise, with the vary- 
ing fortunes attending it, amidst the willing doubts 
and disparaging coldness of foreign powers, under all 
the intense provocations with which a merciless cruelty 
in the enemies of the Government provoked him, to 
have maintained a firm and steady course, uniformly 
considerate, undeviatingly humane, unfalteringly ener- 
getic, and rising ever and always to higher views and 
more distinct results, and pressing onward with in- 
creasing and resistless strength to the hour when 
victory crowned the whole with its cheering light, is 
an achievement to be ranked with the most illustrious 
deeds of the brightest names in the world's record. 
But this is drawing faintly, and only in outline, the 



18 



character and the renown which future history will 
portray in fulness of detail, and with a depth and 
harmony of coloring demanded by so extraordinary a 
subject. 

It should not be presumed, that the process by 
which the higher character to which I have alluded 
was attained, depended merely on a clearer intel- 
lectual understanding, or was carried forward by the 
ordinary steps of experimental and instructive effort. 
Mr. Lincoln was pre-eminently a practical man. His 
upward progress, from an humble and unprivileged 
early position, had been accomplished by a settled 
determination to comprehend what he assumed to 
know, and to understand what he attempted to mas- 
ter. He had no mind for abstractions and theories ; 
but, studying in order to gain the power to do, and at 
once applying the principles he settled, his life was a 
perpetual augmentation of strength, and an enlarge- 
ment of capacity to discharge incumbent duty. 
Nevertheless, in the manifest elevation of feeling and 
thought which he exhibited in his public career, other 
elements were developed. Very evidently, there was 
all along an education and an exaltation of the senti- 
ments of the heart. There was more in his thought- 
fulness than was demanded by the solution of a per- 
plexity. There was a higher restraint in the caution 
of his utterances than is due to prudence in affairs. 
A deeper feeling moved him than the instincts of 



19 



a humane and generous disposition. He gained a 
richer endowment than a simple-hearted, ingenuous 
kindness. No one can have watched his course as a 
man and a ruler without detecting in him an increas- 
ing religious seriousness; a tone and simplicity of 
faith in God and his providence ; an evident seeking 
after a knowledge of the will and counsel of the 
Most High. All this was added to a frankness and 
ingenuousness and rare kindliness of nature, a sort of 
" inflexible gentleness," which spread a veil over 
rougher features ; and this unaffected piety gave a 
tone to his measures and to his utterances everywhere 
perceptible. This religious conscientiousness inspired 
him with courage to attempt, and decision in execut- 
ing, the requirements of duty. Will any one say that 
he did not find something of a practical force control- 
ling him, in the *law of love, from the teachings and 
example of Christ ? Will any one say, that, when his 
mind turned to the exercise of mercy, he had no 
inward promptings, gathered from the voice of mercy 
to which he himself listened in the promises of the 
Redeemer'? His late addresses indicate a depth of 
serious feeling which has now a significance, unreal- 
ized till death added its emphasis. Can any man read 
the solemn utterances of the fourth of March last, 
without the conviction that they are the profound re- 
flections of a heart which looked into the ways of God 
with trembling reverence, rather than the conventional 



20 



language proper to an established ceremony of State 1 
" If we suppose American slavery is one of those 
offences which, in the providence of God, must needs 
come, but which, having continued through his ap- 
pointed time, he now wills to remove ; and that he 
gives to both North and South this terrible war as the 
woe due to those by whom the offence came, — shall 
we discern therein any departure from those divine 
attributes which the believers in a living God always 
ascribe to him \ Fondly do we hope, fervently do Ave 
pray, that this mighty scourge of war may soon pass 
away. Yet, if God wills that it continue till all the 
wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty 
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 
drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by 
another drawn by the sword, as was said three thou- 
sand years ago, so still it must be said, ' The judg- 
ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " 
These words are spoken with the solemnity of the old 
prophets who declared the judgments of God. Was 
the President the friend of the slave for mere pur- 
poses of state necessity? Was he earnest to carry 
on the work of emancipation as a war policy only'? 
Was he moved in his generous act only by tender 
sympathy for sufferers'? His words come out with 
the clear tone of a heart subdued to a sense of guilt 
under the law of God, trembling with the conscious- 
ness of the terrors of divine justice, and humbly 



21 



resigned to the work of that justice in its fearful 
threatenings. Without a sincere and exalting faith, 
such an elevation of sentiment could hardly be possi- 
ble. If, when the responsibility was at first laid upon 
him, he was unprepared ; if, when the question first 
demanded his attention, he did not see the solution, 
— must we not admit, that he rose to the full level 
of the emergency, and with all the strength of his 
understanding, and with the undeviating firmness of 
a heart certain of duty and of God's approbation, 
gave himself to the resolved and settled purpose of 
establishing freedom throughout the land in all the 
borders of if? And this will be the consummate 
flower in the chaplct of his renown. To him God 
has given the honor of writing the decree which 
spoke liberty to the captive, and opened the prison- 
doors to them that were bound. A redeemed race 
have lifted up their humble voices to honor his name. 
In their simple prayers they have invoked benedic- 
tions upon him. Their tears have flowed over his 
bier with a fulness and spontaneousness known only 
to grateful and broken hearts ; and, if it were possible 
for all other voices to be dumb, there is one people, 
whose future life will always be devoted to the 
bestowment of honor upon the name of him who was 
God's hand in lifting the yoke and breaking the chain 
of their long oppression. 

An administration has closed with results such as 



22 



the most sanguine would have held to be Utopian, 
if they had been predicted at its commencement. It 
is sufficient for one man to have made such progress ; 
to have led so far in the onward march of a mighty 
nation ; to have done so much to have trained a peo- 
ple for the coming blessings of liberty, union, and 
republican government. Our honored, revered, and 
now lamented President has ceased from earth. His 
last hour found him at a height of power more than 
kingly, and in the enjoyment of an affection which 
kings might envy. From the obscurity of his origin 
to the dignity of his ultimate position, the range is 
immense. This may be the sport of fortune, the 
eddies and currents of life burying one in oblivion, 
and lifting another to a casual but envied distinction. 
But here we behold greatness achieved without the 
aid of accident, and glory won in the straight and 
luminous path of single-hearted patriotism and single- 
eyed fidelity. Events have a power to bear men 
onward and upward to unexpected posts of honor. 
But he is the hero, whose inward energies rise with 
the tide, and expand with the swelling current ; and 
who becomes strong in the violence of commotion, so 
as ever to be not only master of himself, but also mas- 
ter of events, by knowing their interpretation, receiv- 
ing the lesson, and with a clear eye and firm hand 
holding all things steady in the course of destiny. 
Such a life is an unfolding and a growth of its own 



23 



germ, the shooting upward of its stem, the out-spread- 
ing of its branches, by the stimulation and nutri- 
tion which its own vitality gathers in from the soil 
in which it is set. Such a life pre-eminently was that 
which has just now reached the fulness of its matu- 
rity. The period of its activity which has been so 
turbulent and distracted has been a period of disci- 
pline and development. Every month was marked by 
progress, in character and comprehension. Every 
year added its increment and expansion. Without a 
stain from surrounding corruption, he gained in purity 
as he rose in power. Never losing the genuine sim- 
plicity of his nature, the more exalted he was in the 
estimation of men, the more humble was he, and 
the more reverent his spirit in the sight of God. His 
intellect, as well as his heart, acquired vigor and force 
under the perpetual exertion of his powers; so that 
his highest efficiency and his most illustrious worth 
crowned together his meridian glory. He left the 
burdens of office and the conflict of life with a name 
unsullied by any unworthy deed ; with a record of 
success as full as ambition itself could covet ; with a 
reputation as substantial as it was widely spread ; 
and with the universal consent, that in character and 
action he had proved equal to the demand of his high 
stewardship, and established a fame as ample as the 
affection he had inspired. He whom God raised up, 
and has allowed to do so much, cannot be said to have 



24 



lived in vain. Can he be said to have died too soon 1 
We will embalm his memory in our hearts. We will 
record his worth and write his name with the heroes 
and the nobles of our republic. We will transmit his 
deeds as an inheritance to our children. We will ele- 
vate his life to the gaze of the nations. W r e will 
present his career as an example to all men, of integ- 
rity, firmness, fidelity to duty, and kindliness of heart; 
and his public character to all rulers as a pattern of 
wisdom and moderation, and an illustration of the 
solemn sense of responsibility which becometh those 
who are put in authority of God. By the will of God 
he has fallen on sleep. He rests from his labors. 
He has passed away. But we remain. The coun- 
try remains. The Government remains. There are 
lessons to be learned ; there are duties to be done, 
and a future to be provided for. Let us remember, 
that to confide in our rulers is, as ever, and now 
pre-eminently, our imperative duty ; to stand by and 
sustain the Government of our country, our high 
concern. The life of the nation is continuous ; and 
that life is not yet delivered from peril. We have 
only reached the banks of the Jordan. Under another 
leader, we are to be conducted into the promised land. 
We are to give to him our allegiance, and with an earn- 
est co-operation encourage and strengthen his heart. 
He will need all the support of our prayers, and the 
guiding hand of God. Do we need any other argu- 



25 



ment to fix this fact upon our consciences than the 
scenes which have closed around us with a record so 
full of God's deliverance'? Can we hesitate to trust and 
go forward, to gird ourselves to the conflict in faith 
and cheerful hope ? We miss the great lesson, if we 
are not firmer, truer, and more faithful henceforth. 
One of the conspicuous and impressive features of 
our national struggle has been the distinct manifes- 
tations of God's interposition. Events are God's 
teachers ; " the logic of events " is the line of God's 
argument. And have not the events of providence 
been the sharp points in the controversy which have 
pierced our torpid hearts to the quick ? Was not the 
actual insult upon the flag necessary to arouse us to 
a consciousness of existing treason? Was not defeat 
necessary to reduce the inflation of our pride, and 
humble us to a sense of our weakness ? Were not 
the rivers of blood which have flowed, and the agony 
of thousands of hearts, the testimony required to con- 
vince us of the deep guilt of the nation, which God 
was about to wipe out ? The judgments of God are 
a great deep: who can fathom them? If it was 
necessary, in order to stimulate a too sensual race to 
the severe duties before them, that savage barbarities 
should be added to the horrors of war, and that thou- 
sands of lives should be wasted by the slow cruelties 
of starvation, may there not have been a necessity in 
the last act of fatal wickedness to nerve the people to 

4 



26 



a yet deeper trial of fidelity, in duty? If, to quicken 
the pulsations of a paralyzed patriotism, it was neces- 
sary that blood should be drawn on the nineteenth of 
April, 1861, may it not have been necessary, in like 
manner, in order to fuse all hearts into one great pur- 
pose, that on the nineteenth of April, 1865, the whole 
prostrate nation should with weeping and bitter lamen- 
tation follow to the grave the man of all men most 
deeply beloved, the ruler of all rulers most affec- 
tionately confided in? Shall we say, that the hand of 
the assassin, which struck at so noble a life, did it for 
any fault of his 1 or shall we say, that God permitted 
for a greater good to us, to our country, to posterity, 
that the sword, with a sharper edge than ever, should 
cut to the very core of our hearts 1 Let us remember 
the words of Holy Writ which he himself repeated in 
view of the deserved chastisements of the Almighty: 
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
altogether." Justice and mercy, though unlike, are 
harmonious. They are both the attributes of God, who 
is love. They both subserve the great ends of benev- 
olence. It is as necessary to be just, as to be merci- 
ful. It is justice in God that makes him terrible. 
It is justice in God that renders him worthy to be 
trusted. Justice and love unite in the highest mani- 
festation of God. Justice smote the afflicted Saviour 
upon the cross. The majesty of law, outraged by sin, 
demanded the sacrifice. Love moved the dying lips 



27 



of tlie Son of God in that prayer which will sound 
through all time, — an anthem of sweetest tone : 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." And yet God punishes. God sits upon the 
judgment-seat. Therefore the whole earth stands in 
awe of him. Is it needful for us to separate justice 
and mercy"? Without justice and judgment, the ma- 
jesty of law cannot be vindicated. Without justice 
upon offenders, the peace of the community cannot 
be secured. Without condign punishment upon evil- 
doers, the wicked will triumph. It is the teaching 
of God's oracles, that the ruler beareth not the sword 
in vain. He is set to execute vengeance, not in his 
own name, but as the instrument appointed of God 
for this very thing. The land has been suffering 
judgments through the wickedness of the wicked that 
were in it. Treason and rebellion and barbarity have 
done their worst. The spirit which sustained, un- 
abashed, the horrors of oppression from generation to 
generation, has yielded the whirlwind of its seed-time. 
A cry is going up from the nation, that justice may be 
done ; that felons and traitors, and the instigators of 
savage cruelty, may have the recompense of their 
deeds. It is right that justice should have its course 
upon desperate and incorrigible criminals. If this is 
the duty to which God calls, shall we hold back ? If 
the work of justice be more dreadful than the work 
of mercy, yet it must be done. The work of justice is 



28 



stern, the deeds of justice are fearful; but the spirit of 
justice is not revengeful. It is easy for human nature 
to pass over the narrow line which separates between 
justice and vengeance. It is easy to supplant the spirit 
of justice, by the burning passion of unholy indigna- 
tion. Let not God's great goodness be thus returned. 
Let no malignant passion pollute the stream of our 
gratitude, or mingle in the tide of our sorrow. Let not 
our hope of mercy be so perilled. Let not the spirit 
of our lamented chief be so soon forgotten. Let us 
do our duty in a calm spirit of inflexible integrity, 
without discarding the heavenly instincts of charity. 
Let us pray that Government may be sustained in its 
duty, in its whole, severe duty, true to the demands of 
justice, without abjuring the sentiments of humanity; 
that punishment may be righteously meted out to 
whomsoever deserves it, according to the spirit of the 
law and the demands of right ; so that salutary fear 
may seize upon the hearts of evil-doers, and that trai- 
tors and conspirators may no more infest the land. It 
is necessary that Government should vindicate its 
authority and enforce law ; and so secure to itself 
respect, and command the confidence of the people. 
It is equally important that we should be purged of 
all hateful and vindictive passion, and that we should 
address ourselves to the pressing and momentous 
duties of the hour in the fear of the Lord. 

We have had a high and noble example. That 



29 

benignant spirit which has passed away from earth 
was ever gentle and yet firm, ever simple and yet 
wise, ever humble but yet prompt, ever moderate but 
always true. We can do him no greater honor than 
to remember and follow the words with which he 
closed his last address to the American people : — 

" With malice towards none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right as god gives us to 
see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ," to care 
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for 

his widow and his orphans, to do all which may 

achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 




BOSTON: 

press of john wilson and son, 

15, Water Street. 



